few then desire to receive the image of Jesus.

Even one wrong trait of character, one

sinful desire, persistently cherished, will
eventually neutralize all the power of the
gospel. Every sinful indulgence strengthens the souls aversion to God. The man
who manifests an infidel hardihood, or a
stolid indifference to divine truth, is but
reaping the harvest of that which he has
himself sown. In all the Bible there is not a
more fearful warning against trifling with
evil than the words of the wise man that
the sinner shall be holden with the cords
of his sins (Proverbs 5:22).
Christ is ready to set us free from sin,
but He does not force the will; and if by
persistent transgression the will itself
is wholly bent on evil, and we do not
desire to be set free, if we will not accept
His grace, what more can He do? We
have destroyed ourselves by our determined rejection of His love. Behold,
now is the accepted time; behold, now is
the day of salvation. Today if ye will
hear His voice, harden not your hearts
(2 Corinthians 6:2; Hebrews 3:7-8).
Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heartthe
human heart, with its conflicting emotions
of joy and sorrow; the wandering, wayward
heart, which is the abode of so much impurity and deceit (1 Samuel 16:7). He knows its
motives, its very intents and purposes. Go to
Him with your soul all stained as it is. Like
the psalmist, throw its chambers open to the
all-seeing eye, exclaiming, Search me, O
God, and know my heart: try me, and know
my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked
way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:23-24).
Many accept an intellectual religion,

a form of godliness, when the heart is not

cleansed. Let it be your prayer, Create in
me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right
spirit within me (Psalm 51:10). Deal truly
with your own soul. Be as earnest, as persistent, as you would be if your mortal life
were at stake. This is a matter to be settled
between God and your own soul, settled
for eternity. A supposed hope, and nothing
more, will prove your ruin.
Study Gods word prayerfully. That
word presents before you, in the law of
God and the life of Christ, the great principles of holiness, without which no man
shall see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). It
convinces of sin; it plainly reveals the way
of salvation. Give heed to it as the voice of
God speaking to your soul.
As you see the enormity of sin, as you
see yourself as you really are, do not give
up to despair. It was sinners that Christ
came to save. We have not to reconcile
God to us, butO wondrous love!God
in Christ is reconciling the world unto
Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). He is wooing by His tender love the hearts of His
erring children. No earthly parent could be
as patient with the faults and mistakes of
his children, as is God with those He seeks
to save. No one could plead more tenderly
with the transgressor. No human lips ever
poured out more tender entreaties to the
wanderer than does He. All His promises,
His warnings, are but the breathing of
unutterable love.
When Satan comes to tell you that you
are a great sinner, look up to your Redeemer
and talk of His merits. That which will help
you is to look to His light. Acknowledge
your sin, but tell the enemy that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners and

that you may be saved by His matchless

love (1 Timothy 1:15). Jesus asked Simon
a question in regard to two debtors. One
owed his lord a small sum, and the other
owed him a very large sum; but he forgave
them both, and Christ asked Simon which
debtor would love his lord most. Simon
answered, He to whom he forgave most
(Luke 7:43). We have been great sinners,
but Christ died that we might be forgiven.
The merits of His sacrifice are sufficient to
present to the Father in our behalf. Those
to whom He has forgiven most will love
Him most, and will stand nearest to His
throne to praise Him for His great love and
infinite sacrifice. It is when we most fully
comprehend the love of God that we best
realize the sinfulness of sin. When we see
the length of the chain that was let down
for us, when we understand something of
the infinite sacrifice that Christ has made in
our behalf, the heart is melted with tenderness and contrition.

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Steps to Christ
Tract Series

aul says that as touching

the righteousness which
is in the lawas far as
outward acts were concernedhe was blameless (Philippians 3:6); but when
the spiritual character of the law was
discerned, he saw himself a sinner. Judged
by the letter of the law as men apply it to
the outward life, he had abstained from sin;
but when he looked into the depths of its
holy precepts, and saw himself as God saw
him, he bowed in humiliation and confessed
his guilt. He says, I was alive without the
law once: but when the commandment
came, sin revived, and I died (Romans
7:9). When he saw the spiritual nature of
the law, sin appeared in its true hideousness, and his self-esteem was gone.
God does not regard all sins as of equal
magnitude; there are degrees of guilt in
His estimation, as well as in that of man;
but however trifling this or that wrong act
may seem in the eyes of men, no sin is
small in the sight of God. Mans judgment
is partial, imperfect; but God estimates
all things as they really are. The drunkard
is despised and is told that his sin will
exclude him from heaven; while pride,
selfishness, and covetousness too often
go unrebuked. But these are sins that are
especially offensive to God; for they are
contrary to the benevolence of His character, to that unselfish love which is the very
atmosphere of the unfallen universe. He
who falls into some of the grosser sins may
feel a sense of his shame and poverty and
his need of the grace of Christ; but pride
feels no need, and so it closes the heart
against Christ and the infinite blessings He
came to give.

The poor publican who prayed, God

be merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18:13),
regarded himself as a very wicked man, and
others looked upon him in the same light;
but he felt his need, and with his burden
of guilt and shame he came before God,
asking for His mercy. His heart was open
for the Spirit of God to do its gracious work
and set him free from the power of sin. The
Pharisees boastful, self-righteous prayer
showed that his heart was closed against the
influence of the Holy Spirit. Because of his
distance from God, he had no sense of his
own defilement, in contrast with the perfection of the divine holiness. He felt no need,
and he received nothing.
If you see your sinfulness, do not wait
to make yourself better. How many there
are who think they are not good enough to
come to Christ. Do you expect to become
better through your own efforts? Can the
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard
his spots? then may ye also do good, that
are accustomed to do evil (Jeremiah 13:23).
There is help for us only in God. We must
not wait for stronger persuasions, for better opportunities, or for holier tempers.
We can do nothing of ourselves. We must
come to Christ just as we are.
But let none deceive themselves with the
thought that God, in His great love and mercy, will yet save even the rejecters of His
grace. The exceeding sinfulness of sin can
be estimated only in the light of the cross.
When men urge that God is too good to
cast off the sinner, let them look to Calvary.
It was because there was no other way in
which man could be saved, because without
this sacrifice it was impossible for the human race to escape from the defiling power
of sin, and be restored to communion with

holy beings,impossible for them again to

become partakers of spiritual life,it was
because of this that Christ took upon Himself the guilt of the disobedient and suffered
in the sinners stead. The love and suffering
and death of the Son of God all testify to
the terrible enormity of sin and declare that
there is no escape from its power, no hope
of the higher life, but through the submission of the soul to Christ.
The impenitent sometimes excuse
themselves by saying of professed
Christians, I am as good as they are.
They are no more self-denying, sober, or
circumspect in their conduct than I am.
They love pleasure and self-indulgence as
well as I do. Thus they make the faults
of others an excuse for their own neglect
of duty. But the sins and defects of others
do not excuse anyone, for the Lord has
not given us an erring human pattern. The
spotless Son of God has been given as our
example, and those who complain of the
wrong course of professed Christians are
the ones who should show better lives and
nobler examples. If they have so high a
conception of what a Christian should be, is
not their own sin so much the greater? They
know what is right, and yet refuse to do it.
Beware of procrastination. Do not put
off the work of forsaking your sins and
seeking purity of heart through Jesus. Here
is where thousands upon thousands have
erred to their eternal loss. I will not here
dwell upon the shortness and uncertainty
of life; but there is a terrible dangera
danger not sufficiently understoodin
delaying to yield to the pleading voice
of Gods Holy Spirit, in choosing to live
in sin; for such this delay really is. Sin,
however small it may be esteemed, can be

indulged in only at the peril of infinite loss.

What we do not overcome, will overcome
us and work out our destruction.
Adam and Eve persuaded themselves
that in so small a matter as eating of the
forbidden fruit there could not result such
terrible consequences as God had declared.
But this small matter was the transgression of Gods immutable and holy law,
and it separated man from God and opened
the floodgates of death and untold woe
upon our world. Age after age there has
gone up from our earth a continual cry of
mourning, and the whole creation groaneth
and travaileth together in pain as a consequence of mans disobedience. Heaven
itself has felt the effects of his rebellion
against God. Calvary stands as a memorial
of the amazing sac-rifice required to atone
for the transgression of the divine law. Let
us not regard sin as a trivial thing.
Every act of transgression, every
neglect or rejection of the grace of Christ,
is reacting upon yourself; it is hardening
the heart, depraving the will, benumbing
the understanding, and not only making
you less inclined to yield, but less capable
of yielding, to the tender pleading of Gods
Holy Spirit.
Many are quieting a troubled conscience with the thought that they can
change a course of evil when they choose;
that they can trifle with the invitations of
mercy, and yet be again and again impressed. They think that after doing despite
to the Spirit of grace, after casting their
influence on the side of Satan, in a moment
of terrible extremity they can change their
course. But this is not so easily done. The
experience, the education, of a lifetime,
has so thoroughly molded the character that